UNK Assessment: English Capstone Course

ASSESSMENT PLAN (Revised, 1999-2000) The senior-seminar courses, including most (but not all) of the courses in the sequence ENG 443-ENG 471, will serve as capstone courses for all majors. Our education majors, in addition to the senior seminars, take ENG 424 as a capstone course before undertaking student teaching. (See note on Writing Portfolios) __________ (Revised, 1997-98) The senior-seminar courses, which includes most (but not all) of the courses in the sequence ENG 443-ENG 471, will serve as capstone courses for all majors. Our education majors, in addition to the senior seminars, take ENG 424 as a capstone course before undertaking student teaching. __________ The senior-level courses, ENG 443-ENG 471, will serve as capstone courses for all majors.	1999-2000 ASSESSMENT Literature Capstone Courses this year included two seminars: one in American Literature of the post WW II period and one in British modernism. The lower number of course offerings reflects the department’s participation in the university-wide reallocation process as a cost-cutting measure and does not reflect diminished interest in the capstone courses or a diminished need for them. The results of our portfolio assessment indicate that students reach a higher level of mastery of content by the end of the Capstone Course senior seminars. During the 2000-2001 school year, we will be implementing a questionnaire to gauge students’ perceptions of their strengths and weaknesses at the end of the Capstone Course. This should address our growing concern that we are relying too much on our own subjective perceptions to assess the success of our program. No methods course was offered in Spring 2000, but the fall course continued to consolidate student preparation for teaching. Technological competency has become an increasing focus, with an emphasis on shifting from merely additive technology to a fully integrative approach. This is a major area for continued attention in future years, with computer-based instruction becoming a greater factor in Nebraska’s schools. Within the next few years, 424 will become less of a capstone course as it shifts to the Level 3 block at junior level. These new requirements will be in place for freshmen entering in the fall of 2001, and the changes will be implemented as they reach the junior level in 2003.
	1998-99 ASSESSMENT We offered four Capstone Courses this year (Shakespeare, American Romanticism, America in the 1960’s, and The Quester Hero in Western Literature). Student interest in the courses and their achievement in the classes were uniformly high. Based on the quality and range of the essays from the senior seminars submitted for the writing assessment, the Capstone Courses appear to be meeting the core goals we have set out for our students. For the second year, our education majors have taken 424, the education methods course, before they undertook student teaching (instead of taking them concurrently). During 1998-1999, the new full-semester schedule facilitated an increase in multi-cultural and diversity training, components for which there was insufficient time in the past. Having sixteen weeks of classroom instructional time has been great for presentation of material and teacher preparation, but the new program continues to have weaknesses in regard to tracking student success in the capstone experience. Not much more time was spent on traditional grammar, for which students seem to be increasingly well prepared, but much greater emphasis was placed on the Right Traits program for assessing writing, something many school districts look for specifically in new teachers’ training.
	1997-98 ASSESSMENT As in all English classes, students arrive in the Capstone Courses (American Realism, Romanticism, Early Twentieth Century American Literature this year) with varying previous successes in writing and with varying degrees of motivation regarding the present course, so there is more variance among the students in a 400-level senior seminar than one might expect. Students in one seminar were encouraged to submit their papers to scholarly journals and conferences; consequently, one student’s paper was accepted at a national conference and was the only undergraduate paper presented there. However, the committee could not assess the success of student learning in the three classes offered (or the intermediate program at the 300 level) due to the lack of data from the capstone courses. Some of the concerns raised in ENG 424 will be more adequately addressed when ENG 424 moves to a full semester in the fall of 1998. This will permit more practice in evaluating writing as well as allowing more time to touch on traditional grammar.
	1996-97 ASSESSMENT ENG 424, Teaching Secondary School English, focuses on the roles of literature, composition, and language in the 7-12 curriculum. This final course in the professional sequence is still one of the most important Capstone Courses in the department. This group of students were well prepared in literature but less confident in teaching and evaluating writing and prescriptive grammar. This is to be expected since evaluating writing is difficult and requires much experience to gain a level of confidence. The methods faculty is evaluating grammar preparation, since professional bodies, such as the NCTE, who counsel use of descriptive grammar seem at odds with expectations of the school systems who want instructors to teach proscriptive grammar. ENG 425, Children's Literature, continues to serve not only English majors but students seeking degrees in Elementary/Middle School/Secondary Education and Social Work.
	1995-96 ASSESSMENT The most successful capstone course for English Education majors is ENG 424: Teaching Secondary School English. Students cite this course as the one "that ties it all together." As the final course in the professional sequence, ENG 424 focuses on the roles of literature, composition, and language in the 7-12 curriculum. The Methods students generally display confidence in their academic background, and the revised English major should provide even broader knowledge of American and British literature. At present, responsibilities for delivering instruction over general issues such as classroom management, formulation of lesson plans, and computer-assisted instruction are apparently divided among the methods instructors and College of Education faculty, but remain undefined. Methods instructors from the various subject endorsement areas have shown an interest in large-group, interdisciplinary sessions to address these topics. A newly created Coordinator of Secondary Education in the Department of Professional Teacher Education is working to implement more communication in this area. ENG 425 and 426, Children's Literature and Adolescent Literature, serve not only English majors but students seeking degrees in Elementary/Middle School/Secondary Education and Social Work. These courses attract English Education majors, and these students demonstrate a commendable proficiency in reading, discussing, and writing about literary texts, indicating that their previous experiences in the department have served them well. Responses from two other 400-level literature courses indicate that students are interested in the literature being studied, some of it quite challenging, and respond with "liveliness and responsibility." However, although many write with "profundity and clarity," others employ "skimpy prose," lacking in coherence and transitions. One concern is that our English majors seem to lack a solid reading background. An undergraduate reading list might be one way to address this issue, with the teacher of each course suggesting relevant works and non-credit lectures offered periodically to help students.
	1994-95 ASSESSMENT The English Department offered a Capstone Course, ENG 444: Seminar in American Realism. This course involved students utilizing their primary and secondary research skills as well as their backgrounds in composition and literary criticism and applying this knowledge to a work of literature studied by the class. The culmination of the course was the completion of a Research Journal kept by the students recording their research progress and collecting research materials, critical articles, class handouts, and discussion notes. This Notebook will aid students who choose to become teachers in class preparations or those who desire to continue in advanced English studies. The students and professor also collaborated on a class bibliography in American Realism that was compiled throughout the semester and added to each Notebook at the end of the course. In addition, students wrote 15-20 page papers incorporating their scholarly abilities and writing skills in preparation for teaching composition in the secondary classroom or future academic writing.